Apple is not in the "give-away" business, nor should they be. I own their stock because they know how to make money. When they forget how to do this, I sell.
This is exactly why Apple should buy back all their stock over time and go private so they don't have to appease the champions of profit without getting punished for doing a good thing.
I'm guessing they will announce plans for a special dividend sometime in 2012. Right now, qualifying dividends are taxed at 15% rather than at normal income rates (i.e. the same as long term capital gains). That special tax treatment is set to expire at the end of the year.
I also think they will announce plans to invest a portion of their stockpile in an "incubator" for research and development (i.e. making private equity-type investments in startups). That would be productive use of the money, and potentially give Apple some leverage in the coming years in terms of intellectual property.
Apple has a big enough stockpile of cash and investments that today, it really looks like an investment manager and technology company rolled into one.
Perhaps they'll start an Apple SuperPAC and create a campaign for tax-free repatriation of overseas corporate profits. I'd vote for that.
Apple is not in the "give-away" business, nor should they be. I own their stock because they know how to make money. When they forget how to do this, I sell.
I agree. Screw that charity garbage.
By the way, have you ever noticed that the people and politicians who scream the loudest for other people to give away their money are the ones who contribute the least to charity? Coincidence? I think fucking not.
My guess: A one-time dividend. Something like $20 per share. I don't think Apple will commit to a regular dividend. They may announce a share buyback, but are they going to buy at these levels? They may just say that they will decide when it is appropriate to buy shares.
Perhaps, a one-time bonus for all workers including those at Foxconn? It will be interesting to see how they approach this.
I'd much rather they did a stock buyback. I'm not at all in favor of them trying to satisfy Wall Street versus minding their business.
Of course that would be awesome. We'll see. But it would be a timely distribution in 2012 given that dividends will be taxed more heavily starting in 2013.
I hope it's education pricing for iPads and automatic AppleCare
they wouldn't be having a conference call for something like that. they would just do it.
If they are having this call it is likely that they are either going to pay a dividend or split the stock or some such. or commit part of it to some kind of grant program to help schools get iPads etc into the classroom.
But if that were the case, they would just announce a deal tomorrow morning rather than pre-announce it today. Acquisitions are usually negotiated right up until the time the deal is announced, and it is not unusual for the terms to be discussed late into the night just before the press release is prepared.
Not necessarily. They could conceivably say that they've decided to continue to use their cash to make judicious acquisitions and the rest will be converted into small numismatic gold coins.
I should have read the whole thing. I foolishly assumed that coming off the first weekend iPad sales would also include some news on the results.
They won't likely have the numbers by 9am to speak about it. Maybe from their stories but not the 3rd party shops.
Quote:
Seems odd this would have been decided this weekend and announced first thing before the market opens. Is this typical?
who says it was just decided. They might have known a month ago they were going to do this and waited so late in the weekend to avoid screwing with the stock value up or down
Don't know how young your son is, but if he's still in elementary school (or less), you'd be benefitting his education more by keeping him off of computer devices for a while. Kids need to put pen to paper and learn to have the patience to read linear, non-interactive material. Give them highly interactive audio/video at too young an age and they'll have lots of problems acquiring reading skills.
so nice to see we have an education expert in the house. How many years of research and study have you been doing on the negative impact of non paper based education and where can we read the details about your work. I think many folks would find it fascinating to get some informed information and not the usual off base luddite tripe that is typically passed around as knowledge
Comments
Apple is not in the "give-away" business, nor should they be. I own their stock because they know how to make money. When they forget how to do this, I sell.
This is exactly why Apple should buy back all their stock over time and go private so they don't have to appease the champions of profit without getting punished for doing a good thing.
I'm guessing they will announce plans for a special dividend sometime in 2012. Right now, qualifying dividends are taxed at 15% rather than at normal income rates (i.e. the same as long term capital gains). That special tax treatment is set to expire at the end of the year.
I also think they will announce plans to invest a portion of their stockpile in an "incubator" for research and development (i.e. making private equity-type investments in startups). That would be productive use of the money, and potentially give Apple some leverage in the coming years in terms of intellectual property.
Apple has a big enough stockpile of cash and investments that today, it really looks like an investment manager and technology company rolled into one.
Perhaps they'll start an Apple SuperPAC and create a campaign for tax-free repatriation of overseas corporate profits.
Apple is not in the "give-away" business, nor should they be. I own their stock because they know how to make money. When they forget how to do this, I sell.
I agree. Screw that charity garbage.
By the way, have you ever noticed that the people and politicians who scream the loudest for other people to give away their money are the ones who contribute the least to charity? Coincidence? I think fucking not.
The discussion will supposedly focus only on the matter of cash, so it should be a very short conference call.
Dividends seem the most obvious answer so how do people think dividends would be distributed?
My guess: A one-time dividend. Something like $20 per share. I don't think Apple will commit to a regular dividend. They may announce a share buyback, but are they going to buy at these levels? They may just say that they will decide when it is appropriate to buy shares.
Perhaps, a one-time bonus for all workers including those at Foxconn? It will be interesting to see how they approach this.
I'd much rather they did a stock buyback. I'm not at all in favor of them trying to satisfy Wall Street versus minding their business.
Of course that would be awesome. We'll see. But it would be a timely distribution in 2012 given that dividends will be taxed more heavily starting in 2013.
Just say "no" to a dividend.
Seems odd to me too. But I'm guessing a special dividend. I can't see them announcing some major acquisition.
The discussion will be limited to their cash reserves. That is all.
Apple is going to convert it all to cash and give it all to Mike Daisey to hand out at the Foxconn gates.
How about a bounty on Daisey's head.
How about a bounty on Daisey's head.
That works too.
I hope it's education pricing for iPads and automatic AppleCare
they wouldn't be having a conference call for something like that. they would just do it.
If they are having this call it is likely that they are either going to pay a dividend or split the stock or some such. or commit part of it to some kind of grant program to help schools get iPads etc into the classroom.
Acquisition(s) is the only right answer.
Tim Cook: "Today Apple would like to announce that we have made no decision at this time. Thank you for coming."
But if that were the case, they would just announce a deal tomorrow morning rather than pre-announce it today. Acquisitions are usually negotiated right up until the time the deal is announced, and it is not unusual for the terms to be discussed late into the night just before the press release is prepared.
Not necessarily. They could conceivably say that they've decided to continue to use their cash to make judicious acquisitions and the rest will be converted into small numismatic gold coins.
I should have read the whole thing. I foolishly assumed that coming off the first weekend iPad sales would also include some news on the results.
They won't likely have the numbers by 9am to speak about it. Maybe from their stories but not the 3rd party shops.
Seems odd this would have been decided this weekend and announced first thing before the market opens. Is this typical?
who says it was just decided. They might have known a month ago they were going to do this and waited so late in the weekend to avoid screwing with the stock value up or down
Surprise everyone, we are going to purchase AMD outright and produce our own CPU's and GPU's
I have always thought that to be a good idea. Then all chips for all their products would be in-house.
Don't know how young your son is, but if he's still in elementary school (or less), you'd be benefitting his education more by keeping him off of computer devices for a while. Kids need to put pen to paper and learn to have the patience to read linear, non-interactive material. Give them highly interactive audio/video at too young an age and they'll have lots of problems acquiring reading skills.
so nice to see we have an education expert in the house. How many years of research and study have you been doing on the negative impact of non paper based education and where can we read the details about your work. I think many folks would find it fascinating to get some informed information and not the usual off base luddite tripe that is typically passed around as knowledge
They certainly wouldn't call a special conference call before trading if they decided to sit tight and do nothing with their war chest of cash.
IMO:
1) Announcement of how many iPads sold over the weekend.
2) One-time dividend announcement
3) Stock buy-back announcement
They will only talk about the cash issue, nothing else... if the press release is to be believed.
I'm hoping for no dividend, no buy back, and no split.
I'd settle for that as well.
Tim Cook: "Today Apple would like to announce that we have made no decision at this time. Thank you for coming."
Hahaha... as much as I'd like a dividend, the comedy value of that would be worth not getting one.